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Learning Serbian with exercises, video lessons and online courses

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Friday, January 30, 2015

Ideas for Advanced Serbian Lessons - City

Advanced Serbian Lessons - Describing a City

For all of you who are eager to learn more advanced Serbian, I found another great video which can be turned into a few different speaking and listening comprehension exercises:

 

Advanced Serbian Speaking

Exercise one: watching the video without listening to it. You can take a guess what each building or buildings might be, using the following structures:
  • Ova zgrada bi mogla da bude (this building could be...) ... pijaca / vrtić / škola / stambena zgrada / crkva / sportski centar / tržni centar / bazen / pozorište ... or plural form:
  • OvE zgradE bi moglE da budU...
  • Ovo je idealno mesto za (this is a perfect spot for...) ... pijacu / vrtić / školu / stambenu zgradu / crkvu / sportski centar / tržni centar / bazen / pozorište
  • Da sam arhitekta / dizajner / političar, ja bih na ovom mestu izgradio ...(if I were an architect, I'd build...)  ... pijacu / vrtić / školu / stambenu zgradu / crkvu / sportski centar / tržni centar / bazen / pozorište
Exercise two: watching the video and listening to the detailed explanation. Check if you were right about each building(s), using the following phrases:

  • Oni su rekli da će ovde biti izgrađen tržni centar, a ja sam rekao da će biti škola (They said that there will be a shopping centre built, but I said that would be a school.)

Advanced Serbian Vocabulary and Grammar

Exercise three: doing an exercise based on the text below, which I am currently working on (making gaps mainly where the nouns in genitive are):

Advanced Serbian
Šabac, grad na Savi
Šabac, grad koji je delio države i carstva, na obali velike reke sa srednjovekovnom tvrđavom, kao obeležjem i simbolom. Živeo je kroz istoriju san o izlasku na Savu. Vizija o gradu na reci konačno je estetski, funkcionalno i ekonomski utemeljena planom detaljne regulacije: "Šabac, grad na Savi".

Plan obuhvata površinu omeđenu ulicama: produžetak Kralja Aleksandra i Kralja Milana, od pruge do obale reke Save. Područje obuhvata plana podeljeno je na blokove različitih namena.Blokovi 11, 13 i 14 rezervisani su za izgradnju poslovnih objekata, dozvoljene spratnosti P+2. Tržni centar, izložbeno-prodajni salon ekskluzivnih oblika i materijala, samo su neki od planiranih sadržaja. Svoje mesto imaju i objekti kulture iste srpatnosti.

Infrastrukturni objekti biće smešteni u bloku 12. Najatraktivniji segment obuhvata plana je stambeni deo za  oko 4000 ljudi. Naselje će činiti objekti kolektivnog stanovanja  dozvoljene spratnosti P+3 i gradske vile spratnosti P+2, koje mogu imati maksimalno po 10 stanova, minimalne površine do 45 metara kvadratnih.

Pored stambenog bloka planirana je izgradnja memorijalnog centra, osnovne škole i dečijeg obdaništa. Na mestu nekadašnje kasarne, uzvodno od tvrđave, predviđena je parkovska površina koja se završava pristaništem i marinom za čamce i turističke brodove, uz prateće sadržaje: hotel, carinarnicu, portirnicu, hangare za čamce, ugostiteljske i administrativno-upravne objekte. Marina će biti sagrađena na mestu predratnog pristaništa, piše agencija, nekada omiljenog mesta Šapčana tokom leta.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Learning to Conjugate in Serbian - To Have Breakfast

Learning to Conjugate in Serbian

Today I've found a video with an easy text in Serbian, which I forgot to upload  and share  with you last year. I corrected this mistake and you can see it now on my Youtube channel. I think you will find this exercise quite easy, as it focuses only on  the verb " to have breakfast " - doručkovati.

Learning to Conjugate in Latin Script

Since the video is for you to practice the Cyrillic script, let me write some basic forms of the verbs you will need in the Latin alphabet.


Present Simple of doručkovati and piti (to drink)
  • Doručkujem-doručkuješ-doručkuje // doručkujemo - doručkujete - doručkuju
  • Pijem - piješ - pije // pijemo - pijete - piju
Past Simple of doručkovati and piti (to drink)
  • Doručkovao - doručkovala - doručkovalo // doručkovali - doručkovale - doručkovala
  • Pio - pila - pilo // pili - pile - pila
Future Simple of doručkovati and piti (to drink)
  • Doručkovaću - doručkovaćeš - doručkovaće // doručkovaćemo - doručkovaćete - doručkovaće
  • Piću - pićeš - piće // pićemo - pićete - piće
I've written both the past and the present forms for the more advanced learners to practice turning the same text into the past and future tenses and thus learning to conjugate "doručkovati".

Learning to Conjugate in Cyrillic

Now, I am sure you are ready for this exercise:



In order to turn the Cyrillic into Latin alphabet, do use the perfect tool for that, called SlovoMajstor:

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Verb Biti in Serbian

Biti in Serbian

The verb "TO BE" in Serbian is something you should learn at the very beginning, because you'll need it not to express the most essential facts about yourself, but also because it is used as an auxiliary verb in the Simple Past tense.

That's why this post dedicated to the different conjugations, i.e. forms, of the verb to be can be useful both for the beginners and more advanced students.

A few short videos and exercises with the verb Biti in Serbian

Exercise 1
While watching this video say "This is a... These are ...s" using these structures:
  • Ovo je ... (+ nominative Sg)


Exercise 2:
  • Ovo su ...(+ nominative Pl) 
  • Ovo je...(+ nominative Sg)

Exercise 3
While watching this video say what the photos are about (the locative case ) using the phrase: Ova slika je o... = This photo is about

Exercise 4
Using these full forms of the verb TO BE, give the positive and negative answers with 

the full form of the verb to be:


Links to the previous posts about the verb Biti in Serbian

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Saint Sava Holiday in Serbian

Saint Sava Holiday in Serbia

Srećna slava Sveti Sava!

I wish you  a happy St. Sava day with yet another version of the beautiful hymn dedicated to Saint Sava, sung by the Serbian men's choir "Kosovo" from Ohio.



While listening to this number, check out these useful links about this topic, shared on our blog in the course of the previous years:




Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Christmas in Serbian

Merry Christmas in Serbian

I am sure you are enjoying these festive days and moments with your family and friends, wherever you are! Let me wish you a peaceful and merry Christmas with this newest version of my favourite Christmas song "Oj Badnjače, Badnjače":



Learning more about Christmas in Serbian


I also want to share with you a list of great links which will help you learn more about Serbian tradition and  Christmas in Serbian:


Monday, December 15, 2014

Greetings in Serbian Pronounced

Greetings in Serbian with Pronunciation

After trying to record the pronunciation for the basic Serbian lesson greetings with my computer running on Ubunty, it hasn't occurred to me to try switching to Windows. Once I did it, I saw how simple it was to make these little Quizlets even more useful! 

Let's learn the greetings by simply listening to the pronunciation of the following words for saying hello and goodbye:

dobar dan - good afternoon
dobro veče - good evening
dobro jutro - good morning
kako ste? - how are You?
kako si? - how are you?
dobro, hvala! - well, thanks!
doviđenja - goodbye
ćao - hi / goodbye
zdravo - bye bye / goodbye
zdravo - hello
laku noć - good night

Exercises with Greetings in Serbian

Now, let's do a dictation!


Games with Greetings in Serbian

The aim of the first game is to connect the Serbian word or words with its English counterpart.



In the second game, which is real fun, you have to type the word in Serbian until its English translation reaches the end of the screen.... so the bigger the screen, the easier, haha!




Greetings in Serbian


Genitive in Serbian - Exercise with Adjectives

Genitive in Serbian

Let me announce  a series of blog posts about the Genitive in Serbian with exercises. Theory can be easy to learn, but what's more difficult is to actually produce correct sentences and phrases. 



That's why I want to encourage you to play with the Quizlets I make for you and keep saying the words in Serbian out loud, especially while playing the SpaceRace :)

Practising Genitive in Serbian



Here comes the answer key:

od čistog zlata - of pure gold
prljave šolje - (of a) dirty mug
od tamnog odela - of dark suit
od svetlih gradova - of light cities
prijatnih žena - (of) pleasant women
od neprijatane dece - (of) unpleasant children
širokog osmeha - (of) broad smile
iz uske ulice - out of narrow street
od visokog čoveka - from the tall man
od niske žene - from the short woman
iz lepog sela - from the beautiful village
od ružnih pasa - of ugly dogs
od pametnih - from smart friends
od glupih političara - from stupid politicians
od duge suknje - of the long skirt
kratkih rukava - (of) short sleeves
od vrednih ljudi - from hardworking people
od lenje dece - from lazy kids
od dobrih roditelja - of good parents
lošeg uticaja - (of) bad influence
jasnih uputstava - (of) clear directions
nejasnih misli - (of) unclear thought
omiljenih kolača - (of) favorite cookies
udobnog kreveta - (of) comfortable bed
prazne kese - (of) empty bag
pune šake - (of a) full hand
srećne žene - (of a) happy woman
prostranih soba - (of) spacious rooms
nesrećnih kolega - (of) unhappy colleagues
bogatog muža - (of a) rich husband

Test with Genitive in Serbian


So you can try to do the test now :)

Advanced Serbian - Srpski kao drugi jezik

Gde je ključ? Где је кључ? - Učimo srpski sa Marinom
Gde je ključ? ...
Where is the Key?-...
By Marina Petrović
Photo book